The present invention relates generally to the field of language translation, and more particularly to translation utilizing a Romanization of an ideographic or “word character” language.
Use of online dictionaries, databases and search functions greatly enhance a user's ability to translate content from one language to another. However, written languages using large numbers of characters that represent words or morphemes, sometimes referred to as ideographic characters, herein referred to as “word characters”, face complication when trying to provide input from standard computing input devices, such as a standard keyboard. Some languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, may have thousands of characters that can be used in written expression. Although there are several spoken dialects of Chinese, all use substantially the same written characters. The speed and efficiencies of online computer-based translation can be lost due to the inability to easily input numerous complex characters. In some cases, input devices may be equipped with radicals, which are symbol components of characters that represent the sounds comprising the pronunciation of a word character. The radicals are used to “build” word characters for input to applications or translation functions; however, this presents challenges for language learners that lack advanced understanding and familiarity with the pronunciation or radical component structure of word characters.
To facilitate translation of languages using word characters, phonetic Romanization has been used in which the phonetic pronunciation of the character is represented in Romanized or Latinized characters that are produced using the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). Romanization or Latinization is the conversion of writing from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script. Methods of Romanization of written text include transliteration, converting text from one written type of script to another, and transcription, which is the systematic representation of language in written form. Transcription methods include phonemic transcription, which records the phonemes or units of semantic meaning in speech, and phonetic transcription, which records speech sounds with precision.
For Mandarin Chinese, for example, pinyin is a phonetic system for transcribing the sound of Chinese characters into Romanized script. Pinyin assists a learner of Mandarin Chinese to identify a Chinese character by the phonetic pronunciation of the Chinese character, whose sound is described by the transcribed Romanized script.
One issue in the use of pinyin or phonemic based scripts, is the number of homonyms that may exist for the same Latinized or Romanized (hereafter referred to as Romanized or Romanization), script characters. Many phonetic input systems use a multiple-choice method to address the homonym issue, presenting a candidate list of possible characters with the same pronunciation for each syllable entered, for selection by a user. For example, the pronunciation of “yi” in Mandarin Chinese can correspond to over 100 Chinese characters, which would generate a large list of characters from which a user must choose the most appropriate for the intended use.